More particularly, the invention relates to a non-invasive method of obtaining at least one predetermined target soundwave field in a substantially homogeneous medium that is masked (totally or partially) by a bone barrier, by causing sound signals to be emitted through said bone barrier by at least one array of transducers (comprising one or more transducers, and possibly comprising a plurality of sub-arrays of transducers).
The term “substantially homogeneous medium” is used herein to mean a medium having characteristics that are substantially homogeneous for soundwave propagation. Such a substantially homogeneous medium may be constituted, for example, by the brain, in which case the bone barrier is constituted by the skull. Where appropriate, the substantially homogeneous medium could be constituted by the heart or by the heart-lung system, in which case the bone barrier would be constituted by the rib cage.
It should be observed that the target soundwave field in question could be constituted by a pulsed wave focused on one or more points of the brain, or by a field that is more complex in terms of space and time.
Document WO-A-02/32316 descries an example of such a method, which gives full satisfaction in terms of its results.